Uptown wrote:CashMoney wrote:Uptown wrote:Agree that the team is set up to win big in the playoffs if we can add a few more pieces. With that said, its hard to make the case that the coach emphasizes defense when his team is second to last in defense this year as towards the bottom last year. How many times do we see teams near the bottom of the league in scoring and feild goal % play us and put up season highs in pts? If Mike really cared about defense, he wouldn't play his guys out of position so much. When he puts Melo at the 4 and Amare at the 5 he's thinking about the offensive advantages we might have and seems to be ignoring the defensive disadvantages he puts his teams in.
And dont tell me Malo and Amare cant be a part of a good defensive team. Ray Allen and Paul Pierce were never confused with being defensive players until Thibbs got a hold of them in Boston and put in an effective defensive system. Now Pierce and Allen are apart of the best defensive unit in the league.
Often times MDA has to plays guys out of position because we're thin. Heck, is Shawn Williams is not a Center yet MDA has to play him there for the time being. Turiaf is at best a PF not even close to a Center but he's who we have and what we need to roll with. I have faith in DW and MDA to get this team to where it needs to be.
He doesn't have to play Shawne Williams at the 5 when Shelden Williams is on the bench. No, Willimas is not a naturaly 5 either, but is much better suited than Shawne. But even if we had a big man, not sure how much MDA would play him anyway. Darko never sniffed the court, AR couldn't get a minute, Curry couldn't even get his uniform back from MDA.
Also, someone answer me this, MDA seems to be jonesin' for Jeffries who essentially has the same build as AR. Why couldn't MDA at least try to have AR play a similar role?
Shawne is a good defender and actually was pretty good against Bogut. He has also been good against forwards. Jared is much stronger than AR and his knowledge of the game is far superior. There's no comparison between AR and Jared when it comes to the team concept on both ends. AR is more physically talented, but it's between the ears where he doesn't stack up.
Mike clearly isn't Thibs on D, but neither is Thibs that amazing on O. This team has made MAJOR changes 3 years in a row. How can any coach establish a team identity when the team keeps changing? This is why I believe he deserves a chance to go to camp with this roster and finally get to work on a team that is closer to a final version. There are more changes due, but less than the major overhauls we've had the last 3 years. I'm confident that given time and the balance on the roster we need, this coach will do a great job.
Think about it, do we have more than one very good to great defensive player on this team? I'd say TD is the closest thing we have to that. He also takes chances that lead to blown coverage and he destroys the offense as the PG. Still that's not a lot to work with. Once we can add a rebounder or 2, that should help a lot. We block a ton of shots, but don't always get the rebound and that kills us.